Sofoklis Schortsanitis

Playing in his first ever senior International competition, Schortsanitis is a rare case of a basketball player.

Having an amazing combination of strength and athleticism, Big Sofo is one of Greece's best guys off the bench and should be an immediate help in the low post, especially knowing that he is sometimes practically unguardable at this level with one on one defenses. His ability to use his size and get to the basket rather easily thanks to his nimble feet and almost plastic finishing ability makes him a very tough player to guard with any type of defense.

His size is immense, but doesn't slow his outstanding quickness and explosiveness, which allow him to run the court in transition and usually finish most plays with an impressive dunk. Schortsanitis, coming off his first Euroleague season with Olympiakos, was an important player for his team and a big reason for his team's trip to the quarterfinal round.

He is constantly improving and has dropped over 50 pounds over the last year, trying to regain the form that got him drafted three summers ago by the Los Angeles Clippers. Although he is young and is just now on the verge of slowly becoming a go-to player for his club, Schortsanitis has immensely improved his offensive game and is a guy that comes usually off the bench to completely distract the opposing defenses.

However, Schortsanitis has some obvious problems with his game that make him only a 10- or 15-minute addition off the bench, at least for this upcoming World Championship. First of all, he might have dropped a lot of weight, but he still needs to get even slimmer and more explosive. His massive frame and very high body fat relative to his size limits his conditioning level and make his offensive outburst short and inconsistent.

His size, although immense, is limited, as he cannot be constantly dominant for a 40-minute game at the center position, standing only 6-9. Therefore Schortsanitis will need to improve his outside shot and his free throw percentages, in order to be a threat from outside the post too. Right now, his weak free throw shooting allows opponents to foul him quite often in order to avoid easy baskets, and Schortsanitis usually rewards them for their hack a Sofo-techniques by shooting around 50% from the charity stripe.

His mid-range and three point shot are definitely not reliable, while, although he can present a decent number of post moves, he can still be blocked in the paint, if the space is minimal and the opponent's reach is significant enough. At that point, his limited court vision and lack of patience can be a hindrance, and although easily explained by his age and character, they are not useful for a coach who wants his big guy to be a part of his team’s ball movement, particularly when he is double teamed.

Overall, an amazing talent, with some great potential, mainly thanks to his explosiveness, strength, quickness and athleticism, Schortsanitis will be the back up center, a guy who will need to offer some of his individual skills in order for this team-oriented group to achieve some easy baskets when the guards and starting big man Lazaros Papadopoulos won't be able to contribute.